Merging CRM Records with OneNote

by Salvatore Montini

When OneNote integration was added to Dynamics CRM in 2015, it provided a much more robust way to add documentation around Opportunities, Accounts, Leads, or just about any other entity in CRM. We found many of our users were excited about the new feature and started using OneNote in CRM right away. On the back-end, OneNote creates a notebook when the user opens the OneNote panel for the first time, (or the panel opens by default with the record) and a new workbook is created for that record. Each record has its own workbook (which in most cases is saved to SharePoint via the CRM-SharePoint integration available out of the box).

This new feature has however added some complexity to the task of merging Accounts. When merging two Accounts that both have individual OneNote notebooks linked to them, this error will appear, as the system is unsure how to handle the merge of two different SharePoint locations and will not allow you to merge.

To correct this, one of the locations must be deleted in order for the merge to happen. At this time, you would need to look at each record's workbook and ensure all notes are copied to the Master record's workbook. Then the slave's record's workbook can be deleted for the merge to succeed. This process has been outlined below.

1.Choose the record that you will be deleting the OneNote workbook for

2.Drop down record name's arrow from the ribbon to navigate to the document section

3.Click edit location

4.Copy the text in the Folder Name field

5.Navigate to the parent site by clicking the link in the Parent Site Field

6.Click on Child locations

7.Paste copied text into search box

8.Delete the found document folder

9.Merge the original records as normal

Being able to merge two records instead of deleting one is sometimes necessary, so when you run into an unknown error when merging it can be quite frustrating. After following the steps above to remove the record's workbook, a merge can be completed as normal while still keeping your original OneNote Configuration and notes.